Complaint Handling Reviews

We carry out independent reviews of the way in which police bodies operating in Scotland handle complaints made about them by members of the public. We call these Complaint Handling Reviews.

In this section you can find out how to ask the PIRC to review your complaint against the police, what our review process involves, the possible outcomes following a complaint handling review and some frequently asked questions. You can also access published Complaint Handling Reviews.

The complaints process:

First, make your complaint to the Professional Standards Department of the police body concerned.

Then, if you are dissatisfied with the response, you may then apply to the PIRC for a Complaint Handling Review (CHR).

Finally, once we have completed our CHR, we may publish the findings.

What we publish

We publish an anonymised version of our CHR reports on our website. A small number are not published, where there is a risk that publication could lead to identification of any of those involved.